Empty Rooms
by rosie-bec
Summary: The Doctor makes one last visit to the Powell Estate.


A/N: Hello everyone. If you're expecting a happy ending fic as is usually the case from me then I apologise. I was feeling rather melancholy after watching the 'Runaway Bride' and was inspired to write this fiction giving the Doctor a chance to say goodbye to Rose. Sad as it is she is gone but she wont be forgotten. She will always be the Doctor's girl as far as I'm concerned because I'm an old romantic at heart. I hope I manage to touch a few hearts.

* * *

Empty Rooms

There he was in an empty flat, moving slowly from room to room. The place, once full of sound and laughter was eerily silent. He felt his chest tighten as he came to a room he knew so well it was etched in his memory.

Hesitating he reached for the handle and pushed. Freezing in the doorway, a small smile touching his lips as he glanced around; everything was exactly where it had been left the last time they were here. Steeling himself he moved to sit on the end of the bed.

The flat hadn't been emptied yet, there were so many empty homes the council hadn't got round to the Tyler's flat and he was glad. Once this place was gone the only place he felt even remotely close to her would be on the TARDIS.

He could still hear Jackie yelling at him for keeping her daughter away for so long and Rose yelling back that it wasn't his fault, even though most of the time it was.

He picked up a photo from the bedside table. It was exactly the same one she had in the TARDIS, tucking it into his inside pocket he looked around him. There were very few of her belongings left here now, most of them were back in the TARDIS and he was glad.

He spotted a pile of her washing on her chair, a testament to how domestic things got every now and then travelling with a Tyler and smiled to himself as his eyes began to well. Reaching out he picked up one of her jackets and held it to his face.

He missed Rose Tyler so much he thought both his hearts might stop and never beat again. He never told her how he felt, how much she had changed his life and now she was gone and so was his chance. He moved over to the window and pulled the curtains closed, not wanting people to see inside Rose's room and that's when he saw a battered note book on the dressing table. Without even thinking about it he opened the front cover and recognised it as her diary. Smiling sadly the Doctor turned a few more pages and smiled as her looped writing covered page after page, his own name dotted on nearly every one. Turning to the back he read the last entry. Looking at the date he saw she must've written it the day before Torchwood. She sounded so cheerful in the way she wrote, full of life and excitement, just like his Rose. She even wrote that one day she would tell him that she loved him. A tear fell onto his cheek as he put it in his coat pocket. He didn't think she'd mind him taking it, not anymore. A knock at the front door caused him to practically leap off the bed. Wiping his eyes he called out, taking a last look around and grabbing the last of Rose's stuffed animals.

"Martha?" He looked at his friend quizzically as he opened the door. "What are you doing up here?"

"Well you were gone a long time; I wanted to see if you were okay." She noted the wateriness of his eyes but didn't comment.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yes. Everything's fine."

"You alright? Do need longer to finish whatever you were doing?" She tried to peer into the flat but he blocked her view.

"Oh you know me, I'm always alright." He smiled, stepping out pulling the door shut behind him. Making sure it was locked he hesitated as he went to post the keys back through the letter box. He was aware that Martha was watching him closely as he stared at the keys in his hand. Rose's keys, with Rose's key rings, one of which was a photofob of her, Mickey, Jackie and him all sat round the dinner table grinning like idiots. Squeezing them tightly in his hand the Doctor placed the keys in his pocket, not quite ready to leave them just yet.

He checked the windows and the door again before he sighed and nodded.

"Rose's home?" Martha asked.

"Not anymore." The Doctor told her, sadness plain in his voice as he began the walk back to the TARDIS. Martha hung back a way allowing him to do this walk one last time by himself. It was plain as day to her how much he had loved Rose. How much he STILL loved Rose and that was never going to change. And the Doctor was grateful that she was keeping her distance.

Once they'd arrived in the courtyard Martha disappeared back into the TARDIS while to Doctor took one last look up at the Powell Estate.

"I miss you, I will always miss you and I will never _ever_ love anyone as much as I love you." He took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut willing the tears not to fall before looking back up at the Tyler's windows. "Goodbye Rose Marion Tyler, you really are fantastic."

* * *

A/N: There that's off my chest now. I can't guarantee that this will be the last one I ever write. I'm sure there will be moments when I sit down at my computer and just feel sad when I'm writing other adventures for them. I've done two mainly from the Doctor's point of view so maybe a Rose one will spawn itself. But for now all I can say is in this universe; Goodbye Rose Tyler. You were fantastic. Right tears now mopped up I'm now switching back to my other world where Rose gets back to the Doctor and they live…..well pretty much a chaotically as ever! Thank you for reading.

"Catch ya on the Flip Flop!"


End file.
